late-term abortions

The acrimonious debate over abortion that’s divided the country for generations is being reignited for the 2020 election with the Supreme Court’s tilt to the right and Democratic-led states moving to lift some restrictions on the procedure.

New York has eased some restrictions on late-term abortions, and lawmakers in Virginia have proposed to do so. That has given anti-abortion advocates fresh arguments and targets. Both sides in the debate, at the same time, expect the Supreme Court with two conservative justices appointed by President Donald Trump to narrow abortion rights.

In recent weeks, the anti-abortion movement has seized upon one of its favorite subjects with even more fervor than usual: abortion after 20 weeks. People purporting to be “pro-life” spent days deluging Virginia delegate Kathy Tran with death threats, wrongly accusing her of supporting infanticide after she introduced a bill that would make it slightly easier for women in the state to get later abortions. Trump seized upon this vicious momentum in his State of the Union address, expressing his disgust at the Virginia bill, as well as with “lawmakers in New York” who recently voted to legalize abortion after 24 weeks in cases where the fetus isn’t viable or the mother’s health is at risk. According to Trump, the latter group “cheered with delight upon the passage of legislation that would allow a baby to be ripped from the mother’s womb moments before birth.”

This isn’t true, of course, but that doesn’t matter to those using it to incite outrage. The point is to demonize procedures after 20 weeks, depicting them as barbaric and tantamount to murder as a means of demonizing abortion in general.

Reporters Must Do Better on Abortion: Six Facts You Should Know
Reputable newspapers and TV news outlets are supposed to care about facts and evidence to help inform the public. And they continue to fail miserably when reporting on abortion.

Feb 5, 2019
Jodi Jacobson

Media coverage of abortion care in the United States is — to be blunt — abysmal. Too much news coverage and analysis of abortion is devoid of fact, and instead relies on the faulty premise that the abortion debate involves two sides arguing in good faith, when in reality one side is rooted in evidence and clinical experience and the other in flat-out lies and ideology.

Much of what passes for conservative commentary in outlets like the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, and numerous other mainstream publications fails to engage any facts at all.

Why Trump spent so much time criticizing abortion during the State of the Union
He may see it as a winning issue for 2020.

By Anna North
Feb 5, 2019

“Let us work together to build a culture that cherishes innocent life,” said President Donald Trump during his State of the Union speech on Tuesday night. “And let us reaffirm a fundamental truth: All children — born and unborn — are made in the holy image of God.”

In uncharacteristically extensive comments on the subject, Trump criticized efforts to loosen abortion restrictions in New York and Virginia. He also called for federal anti-abortion legislation.

Recent legislation regulating abortion in New York and the fervor around a similar proposed bill in Virginia have ignited a national conversation around later abortion. We understand the president may include the issue in his State of the Union remarks and the debate is raging on cable news shows, in opinion pieces and social media posts. But this proxy war is not about the later abortions actually happening in the country.

Conservatives Are Perpetuating Dangerous Tropes About Patients Who Need Later Abortions

Feb 4, 2019
Dr. Daniel Grossman

As an OB-GYN, an abortion provider, and a researcher who studies abortion and contraception, the work I do is fundamentally rooted in medical evidence and science. That’s why I’ve been so frustrated to see a conversation about abortion dominated by ideologically driven misinformation rather than facts unfold over the last week.

Leading conservative figures have used legislation proposed in Virginia and passed in New York to spread lies about abortion. In fact, all Virginia’s bill would do is end the burdensome 24-hour waiting period, remove the state-mandated ultrasound law, and require one doctor—instead of three—to approve a request for third-trimester abortions.

It’s Both Difficult and Incredibly Important to Make the Case for Third-Trimester Abortions

By Christina Cauterucci
Feb 01, 2019

Conservative politicians and right-wing activists have targeted a Virginia state legislator this week and in the process reignited a nationwide debate about third-trimester abortions. Delegate Kathy Tran’s bill, which was tabled by a House of Delegates subcommittee this week, would have loosened some restrictions on second- and third-trimester abortions, which are legal in the state under specific circumstances. Though the legislation has been proposed in previous sessions—and though it never made it to the House floor for a vote this go-round—anti-abortion advocates are using it to paint pro-choice Democrats as supporters of, as Sen. Marco Rubio put it in a tweet, “legal infanticide.”